Survey Respondent Profile
The dotOrganize online survey, which targeted North American social change and campaigning organizations, garnered a total of 378 unduplicated responses across 43 U.S. states, as well as Canada.
dotOrganize solicited participants from diverse nonprofit listserves and blogs, as well as through colleagues and allies. Respondents included executive directors, campaign directors, and organizers. Although the online format of the survey encouraged responses from organizations possessing basic online access, respondents included those identifying as “online organizers” as well as those using more traditional, offline organizing methods.
Respondents ranged from volunteer-run peace action groups to organizations working on youth civic engagement to national environmental groups with annual budgets well over $5 million. However, dotOrganize deliberately solicited responses from social change organizing groups working with smaller budgets and fewer staff.
Demographic responses show that:
- Survey respondents work across the spectrum of social change issues, including education (35%), the environment (30%), healthcare (34%), youth issues (29%), and economic justice (21%).
- 30% of respondents operate on a budget of $100,000 or under, and 60% operate on a budget of $500,000 or under.
- Respondents tend to have a relatively small number of paid staff. 67% employ 10 or fewer paid staff members, and a full 15% are run entirely by volunteers.
This report compiles insights from more than 400 social change groups, technology providers, and nonprofit technology capacity builders, examining the needs of organizers working to utilize new technologies, and offering recommendations for how to meet those needs more effectively.
September 28th, 2006 at 4:08 pm PST
A key point here, that someone else mentioned elsewhere, is that this sample is likely biased at least somewhat towards more tech-savy groups. Perhaps the report author(s) would care to comment on whether this is likely?
Also there seems to be a bias towards larger organizations. I think the 15% of groups that are volunteer-run make up the overwhelming majority of social change organizations. I’m very interested in how their concerns might differ from those of the larger groups?
September 28th, 2006 at 4:50 pm PST
Thanks for the feedback, Aaron. As we note above, the survey was conducted and distributed online, so yes, the sample is biased to those who at least have online access.
As for being biased towards larger orgs, only 18% of those surveyed have a staff of more than 25 people. So I guess it depends on what you consider a large org.
Not sure I agree that volunteer-run groups are the \”overwhelming majority\” of social change organizations, though I do believe they are all too often overlooked — see: http://www.dotorganize.net/report/increase_offerings
Cheers,
Leda
October 4th, 2006 at 8:57 am PST
excellent report There have been some changes here in Georgia.
October 13th, 2006 at 7:33 am PST
I understand the online factor. I am curious about whether this is US-centric or is global in nature; which countries are these respondents from?
This is somewhat important, I believe.
October 13th, 2006 at 8:36 am PST
As noted above, the respondents were primarily North American (US and Canada).